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First Battle of Pluto (2199)
: Codenamed "Operation M," the First Battle of Pluto was a major engagement in the Garmillas-Earth War. While a near-total tactical loss for the United Nations Cosmo Navy, it was a massive strategic victory that would set into motion a plan to end the war and save the human race. Prelude Still devastated from their pyrrhic victory at the Second Battle of Mars and having endured years of planet bombings further irradiating the Earth, humanity's future was bleak. Pollution, shortage of supplies, sickness, and general hopelessness would see the human race extinct in little more than a year. However, the UNCN had been contacted by Starsha, the queen of the distant planet Iscandar, offering technology that would revert Earth back to its lush, habitable state. The catch was that she could not have it brought to Earth, but she would send her sister Sasha with the Wave-Motion Core to make a journey to Iscandar possible. This piece of technology would allow the UNCN to finish the Yamato Project. Knowing that humanity's survival depended on getting the core, the UNCN hatched an all or nothing gambit to use the First Fleet as a distraction, forcing the Great Garmillas Imperial Astro fleet into a confrontation so the Iscandarian ship, codenamed "Amaterasu" would not be intercepted. To do this, the UNCN gathered their remaining 22 ships led by the flagship Kirishima under the legendary Admiral Juzo Okita. Three weeks leading up to the battle, a two man team was dispatched and concealed at the ruined Arcadian Port on Mars on standby to retrieve the package when it arrived. Arriving at Pluto ahead of the main force was the assault destroyer Yukikaze under Captain Mamoru Kodai. Mamoru's second in command noted the suspicious absence of any enemy ships as the assault destroyer was brought to combat status. The Battle Meanwhile, the UNCN First Fleet quickly encountered a number of oncoming contacts on their radar as they assumed a battle line. The enemy force of already technologically advanced ships more than quadrupled their own, including a super-dreadnought, seven battleships, 22 cruisers, and about a hundred destroyers. The Garmillas wasted no time in forming their own line and sent a simple message to the humans: surrender or be destroyed. However, the First Fleet stood their ground, and Okita sent an even simpler reply: "nuts." This was immediately followed by an opening salvo from the aliens, outright destroying the Yuugiri and scaring Kurama out of formation. Rather than flee, the First Fleet returned fire but their inferior cannons merely bounced off the enemy's hulls while missiles missed their targets. Earth ships were being sunk or damaged by the second while a crippled UNCN destroyer careened into and destroyed a fellow human ship. Even as the massacre played out in front of him, and with Kirishima sustaining incredible damage, Okita held firm, confident that the Iscandarian ship would arrive. His faith was rewarded when Amaterasu finally arrived, burning past Neptune at interstellar speed. Okita sent back an encrypted code to HQ saying "the stone door of heaven is open." Ten minutes later, the recovery team on Mars witnessed the starship mysteriously explode in mid-air and found an escape capsule only to discover its occupant, Sasha, was dead. The Wave Motion Core was recovered, at which point Okita ordered Kirishima, the last remaining First Fleet ship, to withdraw. A Garmillas destroyer, however, broke formation and dived towards the weakened ship. Just in time, the Yukikaze, which had overheard the situation and joined the flight, sunk the destroyer with two torpedoes from behind. Surprisingly, and against Okita's orders and even pleas, Kodai decided against retreating and instead attacked the enemy head-on, giving the Kirishima the chance to escape. The assault destroyer used its agility to dodge entire volleys of cannon fire in the middle of the confused enemy formation, even causing enemy friendly fire, but was eventually critically damaged and crashed on Enceladus. This was unknown for months, and she was assumed destroyed and lost with all hands. Aftermath The already crippled United Nations Cosmo fleet had lost the pitiful few ships it had left, with only a damaged battleship remaining and inflicted minimal losses on the enemy. This blow would even further build on the hatred humans held towards the invaders. However, this sacrifice would, in the long run, prove to be the chance that humanity needed. On its way home to Earth, Kirishima passed Mars and picked up the package and the extraction team, bringing it to the UN Far East HQ where it would be used to finally complete the Yamato Project: a warship not only capable of taking on Garmillan ships on its own, but enhanced with FTL travel and, most importantly, able to travel to Iscandar to save humanity. Notes and References